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Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
161. And in the light dwells the will of the Father and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the life therein. He reveals now the power of the gentle essentiality in the light, and that is colours, wonders and virtues. 62. And this is called virgin Wisdom; for it is not a genetrix, neither itself reveals anything, but the Holy Spirit is the revealer of its wonders. It 28 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS is his vesture and fair adornment, and has in it the wonders, colours and virtues of the divine world; it is the house of the Holy Trinity, and the ornament of the divine and angelic world. 63. In its colours and virtues the Holy Spirit has revealed the chou's of angels, as well as all the marvels of created things, all which have been beheld from eternity in wisdom; without being indeed, but in wisdom as in the mirror, according to their figures; which figures have in the motion of the Father advanced into essence and into a creaturely existence, all according to the wonders of vnsdom. 64. Now, understand us also concerning the other being, where in the terror Nature divides into two beings, as mentioned above: viz. one through the Father's will into fire or into the fire-world; and one through the Father's other will that is drawn or generated in himself, into the majestic lightworld.
265. And the other being, viz. the house of terror in itself, in death, in the darkness of the hostile source (Qual) , which must stand thus in order that there may be an eternal longing in this anguish to be freed from the source. For this longing makes the first will to Nature eternally desirous to come to the aid of its being. Whence then in the Father's will mercy arises, which enters with freedom into the anguish, but cannot remain in the anguish, but goes forth in fire into the source of love. 66. That is, his other will, or his heart, issues in THE FIRST POINT 29 him as a fountain of love and mercy, from whence compassion has its origin, so that there is a pity on distress and misery, and a sympathy; viz. here, the Father's will, which is free, reveals itself in the fierceness of Nature, so that the fierce wrathfulness is mitigated. 67. But nevertheless on one part the terrible wheel of fierceness continues independently. For in the terror a mortification is brought about, not indeed a still death, but a mortal life; and resembles the worst thing, as is an aqua fortis or a poison in itself. For such a thing must be, if the centrum- naturae is to subsist eternally.
368. And on the other part life proceeds out of death, and death must therefore be a cause of life. Else, if there were no such poisonous, fierce, fervent source, fire could not be generated, and there could be no essence nor fiery sharpness; hence also there would be no light, and also no finding of life. 69. The first will, which is called Father, finds itself thus in wonders; and the other will, which is called Son, finds itself thus in power. Moreover, thus also the kingdom of joy arises ; for if there were no pain, there were also no joy. But this is the kingdom of joy, that life is delivered from anguish, although life has its origin thus. 70. And therefore the creatures have poison, viz. a gall, for their life. The gall is the cause that there is a mobility by which life rises; for it occasions fire in the heart, and the right life is fire, but it is not the figure of life. 71. From the fire-life springs the right spirit. 30 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS which goes forth from fire in the hght; it is free from fire as air, which nevertheless arises from fire, is free from fire. 72. For the right spirit, or in man the spirit which is generated from the soul's fire, has its property in the Light of life, which burns from fire. For it arises from death, it proceeds out of death, the hostile source has remained away from it in fire, and below fire, in the cause of fire, viz. in fierce wrathful death.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
161. And in the light dwells the will of the Father and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the life therein. He reveals now the power of the gentle essentiality in the light, and that is colours, wonders and virtues. 62. And this is called virgin Wisdom; for it is not a genetrix, neither itself reveals anything, but the Holy Spirit is the revealer of its wonders. It 28 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS is his vesture and fair adornment, and has in it the wonders, colours and virtues of the divine world; it is the house of the Holy Trinity, and the ornament of the divine and angelic world. 63. In its colours and virtues the Holy Spirit has revealed the chou's of angels, as well as all the marvels of created things, all which have been beheld from eternity in wisdom; without being indeed, but in wisdom as in the mirror, according to their figures; which figures have in the motion of the Father advanced into essence and into a creaturely existence, all according to the wonders of vnsdom. 64. Now, understand us also concerning the other being, where in the terror Nature divides into two beings, as mentioned above: viz. one through the Father's will into fire or into the fire-world; and one through the Father's other will that is drawn or generated in himself, into the majestic lightworld.
265. And the other being, viz. the house of terror in itself, in death, in the darkness of the hostile source (Qual) , which must stand thus in order that there may be an eternal longing in this anguish to be freed from the source. For this longing makes the first will to Nature eternally desirous to come to the aid of its being. Whence then in the Father's will mercy arises, which enters with freedom into the anguish, but cannot remain in the anguish, but goes forth in fire into the source of love. 66. That is, his other will, or his heart, issues in THE FIRST POINT 29 him as a fountain of love and mercy, from whence compassion has its origin, so that there is a pity on distress and misery, and a sympathy; viz. here, the Father's will, which is free, reveals itself in the fierceness of Nature, so that the fierce wrathfulness is mitigated. 67. But nevertheless on one part the terrible wheel of fierceness continues independently. For in the terror a mortification is brought about, not indeed a still death, but a mortal life; and resembles the worst thing, as is an aqua fortis or a poison in itself. For such a thing must be, if the centrum- naturae is to subsist eternally.
368. And on the other part life proceeds out of death, and death must therefore be a cause of life. Else, if there were no such poisonous, fierce, fervent source, fire could not be generated, and there could be no essence nor fiery sharpness; hence also there would be no light, and also no finding of life. 69. The first will, which is called Father, finds itself thus in wonders; and the other will, which is called Son, finds itself thus in power. Moreover, thus also the kingdom of joy arises ; for if there were no pain, there were also no joy. But this is the kingdom of joy, that life is delivered from anguish, although life has its origin thus. 70. And therefore the creatures have poison, viz. a gall, for their life. The gall is the cause that there is a mobility by which life rises; for it occasions fire in the heart, and the right life is fire, but it is not the figure of life. 71. From the fire-life springs the right spirit. 30 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS which goes forth from fire in the hght; it is free from fire as air, which nevertheless arises from fire, is free from fire. 72. For the right spirit, or in man the spirit which is generated from the soul's fire, has its property in the Light of life, which burns from fire. For it arises from death, it proceeds out of death, the hostile source has remained away from it in fire, and below fire, in the cause of fire, viz. in fierce wrathful death.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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